Monday, July 9, 2018

Hiking The Avon Trail: Hike Six

   On Saturday of this past weekend, I decided to return to the Avon Trail and attempt to make up for the previous weekend's somewhat disastrous result, wherein I was overcome with exhaustion and heat and found myself unable to complete the section.
   This time out, I was going it alone and drove up to the start-point by myself---it would be a smaller hike and I had it mapped out in such a way that I could drive to a small section, complete it, then drive on to the next longer section. I would then be left with about a three and a half kilometer trek back to my car.
   I started off by tackling a 3K section just northwest of Berlett's Corners. I parked my car by the end point and then had a fairly short highway jaunt to the beginning of the trail. 
   Once again, as soon as I entered the woods, I was swarmed by mosquitoes. Fortunately I came well-prepared and was already wearing my bug jacket. It was just a short section but near to the end of it I lost the trail. I was following the blazes and then, suddenly, not a blaze to be found. I back-tracked to the last blaze I'd seen and tried all over again but still no blaze. At that point, I had a general idea of what direction I needed to head in and eventually made my way back to the marked trail. No sweat but it didn't do a lot for my mindset!
   After this, a lengthy highway walk and I then found myself with the final section of woods I'd planned on hiking. 
   I then entered Musselman Woods. This is a parcel of land owned by the Musselman and Schneider families and its trails are wide and fairly well-marked. It was quite hilly but still a pleasurable hike. It was here, though, that I ran into some problems.
   As is my usual predicament, I found myself having a hard time marrying the written directions in the guide, the map which comes with them, and what I was actually able to see with my own two eyes. 
   As an example, at one point the guide says you will climb a steep hill, at the top of the hill there will be a bench, with a panoramic view of a lake. Well, I clearly had just gone up a hill, I had popped out of the forest, there was a bench with a panoramic view---but no lake. Had the lake dried up?? Following the map, it looked as though I needed to go right, around the edge of a field (the guide mentioned this) and so I did. And promptly found another bench. And then another. There were benches all over the place! There were also many entrances back into the forest, so I took a couple of them, looking for blazes. None to be found. So back to the original bench. Here I managed to find a tiny little directional blaze, pinned to a post, indicating a left turn. So I took it. Found more blazes but seemed to be headed back in the direction from whence I'd come. 
   At this point, I was, in a way, lost. I did have a trail to follow, just wasn't sure it was taking me where I wanted to go. If all else failed though, it would get me out of the woods.
   A lot of twisting and turning later and I found myself out of the woods and at the base of a fairly steep, grassy hill. I powered up it and, lo and behold, there was the bench with the panoramic view of the lake! Huge sigh of relief and vindication that I was actually on the right path. The view from the bench was amazing and it was kind of a cathartic moment, to be honest. 
   From there, the rest of the forest trip was uneventful and I soon found myself back on the roadway, headed to my car. It was a long walk and my feet were burning but my legs were good so we got 'er done. Never so glad to see my car, though...
   And now, as is customary, a walking-the-walk photo dump!

I've just parked at the end of the first section I
wanted to hike and now for some roadwork to get me...
...down to Berlett's Corners, where they have a....
...small cemetery.
Another little bit of highway walking took me
to where I entered the forest. You can just see the
Avon Trail sign from the road.
I always like the look of a wheatfield up against
the forest. Where those trees start was my entrance
back into the woods, although it took me awhile
to figure that out.
Because I took a pic, I musta known where I was goin'!
Back to my car for a bite to eat and then drive to the
next section. Normally I would have hiked there,
but I already did this part last week.
Walking to the next set of woods.
The entrance to Musselman Woods, Ropes and
barriers so we don't block the laneway.
Nice little sign!
Wide and easily walkable. Hilly, too!
My favourite part of the day! After wandering around,
lost, I found the hill with the bench and the view!
After a quick hike through the rest of the forest,
I reach the endpoint. This is the 91.6 K point of the
Avon Trail. Only about 21K to go!



   

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